towards me. He continued me in the office, and furnished me board and clothing for my services; and I fear the agreement was not as faithfully performed towards him, as it was on his part to me. I was a very indifferent clerk, a wretched copyist; my head was so much of a beehive, so full of projects of my own, that I made continual blunders. If he had not been one of the mildest and most indulgent men in the world, he would have knocked me down twenty times a day. I detested the dull labour of transcribing names, indexes and dates, and I believe injured my memory by learning to forget, as the only way I could copy without making mistakes. I was really anxious to correct my defects, and felt much mortification from them. In copying a deed, whenever I came to the words, woods, ways, and watercourses,' it was impossible to restrain my imagination; and in writing names, the associations called up by them, threw me into a reverie, from which I did not awaken, until I found that for the name of Smith I had substituted that of Pocahontas. This dull routine interfered with my habits of reading, and these, exceeding my industry as a clerk, interfered with my habits of business. I read every thing that came in my way. Mr Bates often remonstrated with me, in the most mild and delicate manner, which touched my feelings more powerfully than if he had treated me harshly. He agreed, at last, to compromise the matter, by allowing me to keep the Elegant Extracts in Prose and Verse in my desk, as also Blair's Lectures, Abbe

Mauy on Eloquence, and Curran's Speeches; any others were to be read at our lodgings. I will mention an instance of my almost instinctive discrimination, of works of taste. I once picked up, in the bar room of a tavern, a volume, with the title page and a few of the first, and a number of the concluding, pages torn off; I read but a few sentences, until I sat down upon a bench and ran through the whole with the greatest avidity: it was the Rasselas of Dr Johnson.

I was seized with a singular passion for drawing and painting. With my usual ardour, I devoted every moment I could spare to this new pursuit. Sometimes I sat up the greater part of the night, and I even thought I would be willing to spend the remainder of my life in a prison, if I could be allowed to do nothing else but copy drawings. I ransacked the whole town for these, and for works on the subject of painting, for the biography of painters, for Indian ink, crayons, and water colours. Yet, I had nothing but a passion for this elegant art; nature had given me no original aptitude. By extraordinary diligence I acquired a singular facility in copying the outlines of drawings and engravings; but as to shading, or the production of any thing original, I was totally deficient. Mr Bates had a splendid copy of Lavater with three hundred engravings: these I copied at night, at the same time poring over the study of physiognomy. The only thing original, if it might be called such, which I could produce, was a rough sketch of striking faces, generally caricature. It was thought that I had a genius

for painting, but this was a mistake; all the instruction in the world would not have made me any thing more than a copyist. After a while I found it out, and gave my attention again to my books, which was never entirely remitted. As I have mentioned the subject of physiognomy, I will remark, that in my opinion, four fifths of Lavater's system is imaginary; something, it is true may be inferred from the predominant use of certain muscles, called into action by particular passions or propensities; but the only part of it which has any foundation in nature, is that which it has in common with phrenology. Can there be any thing more fanciful, than the idea that prominent eyes indicate a propensity for drink, and that that prominence is occasioned by the protruding of the eye-balls in looking at the favourite beverage! There is, doubtless, much admirable philosophy in the work of Lavater, in exhibiting the power of education in correcting evil propensities and in cultivating virtues. But as to his furnishing a scheme, by which the characters and fitness of men can be determined with any thing like certainty, it is out of the question. I have seen all his rules repeatedly contradicted, so far as relates to the passions and shades of passions; as to the powers of the intellect, I think favourably of his theory of the line of the forehead and the other features.

I was also seized with a desire to play on some instrument of music, and took lessons on the violin, and then on the flute. But I found

that I had a very bad ear, and was advised to give it up. Yet, I was passionately fond of music; it has always had a powerful effect on my feelings. It soothes the mind, and tames the ferocious heart. At church, the music has often reconciled me to a dull sermon, in which bad reasoning and bad language were rendered almost torturing, by bad voice and bad delivery.

CHAPTER IX.

LEGAL STUDIES—FIRST COURT HELD IN A NEW COUNTY.

DURING the latter part of my apprenticeship in the office, I attended the court, kept the minutes, swore the juries and witnesses, and listened to the speeches of lawyers and the charges of the judge, by means of which I picked up some law, in the way a child acquires its vernacular tongue. The bar was a very able one, and the lawyers were in the habit of handling every subject in the most elaborate manner.

It was now determined that I should begin a course of regular legal study, being in my eighteenth year. I had gone through a great deal of literary and miscellaneous reading, had some knowledge of history, and was well versed in the English classics, but had not yet read any law book. Mr William Ayres, who had been a student of my father, was appointed prothonotary of a new county called Butler, and, as he did not intend to give up his practice in other courts, wanted some person to attend to the duties of his office. I was employed by him, and was to read law, excepting when my time would be